Review of The Paperboy (2012) by Joel M — 19 Jan 2013

Does "The Paperboy" deliver greatness? Extra, extra! Read all about it! Or at least read my following little corny review on "The Paperboy". This is one of the strangest movies I have seen in a while, and to quote the great Jim Morrison "People are Strange" in this picture. It stars Zac Efron as Jack Jansen, a northern Florida young man who gets entangled in a bizarre situation. Jack's older brother Wade (played by Matthew McConaughey) is a New York reporter who travels back to his northern Florida hometown to investigate a case involving a death row inmate called Hillary Van Wetter; and no, it is not a female porn star with a name like that. By the way, Van Wetter is played by John Cusack. Nicole Kidman co-stars as Charlotte Bess, a southern middle-aged floosy who is obsessed with Van Wetter. Even though she is a loose gal, you would think she could do better than Van Wetter! Couldn't do any worse! Charlotte teams up with Wade and his writing partner Yardley to help free Hillary by trying to find evidence to prove that Hillary did not commit the gruesome crime that lead to his death penalty conviction. Jack develops a mad cougar crush on Charlotte, so he joins in also in the journalistic investigation to help free Hilary, hence the title "The Paperboy". But what Jack really wants is for Charlotte to pull her trashy web on him. Director Lee Daniels has constructed an odd southern film which derails a bit too much with lewd narrative points throughout its development. Daniels' screenplay was a bit too outlandish for my taste, even though I admire his effort. McConaughey brought in another solid performance in his comeback year of 2012 as Wade. Kidman was outstanding as Charlotte, and was worthy of the Best Supporting Actress nominations it received from the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. And this is the best work I have seen from Zac Efron with his effective performance as Jack. However, John Cusack was incarcerated with the acting crime of "over-the-top" shenanigans with his creepy effort as Hillary; and I am a huge Cusack fan. I was also enlightened with the impressive supportive effort from David Oyelowo as Yardley. "The Paperboy" was fair, but it does not deliver all the cinematic goods. So my tip for "The Paperboy" is to read it between-the-lines and maybe you will like it better than I did, or maybe you won't. Copy that!

*** Average.